Memling’s Portraits

last updated 8 January 2015

In the Middle Ages, when lives were brief and 'œfear of eternity great, portraits served a kind of talismanic function,' said Holland Cotter in The New York Times. They provided a way to transcend death and time. Though these paintings often had a religious cast, by the 15th century they had become more of a secular vehicle for advertising the subject's worldly status. 'œ'Now, there's a chap who's done well for himself,' portraits ask us to think, and more often than not, this was so.' Hans Memling was adept at both religious and secular subjects. Though he painted scores of portraits, only about 30 survive, 20 of which are now on view at the Frick Collection. That's a 'œwhale of a lot of paintings by any major early Netherlandish artist to be in any one place at one time.' That alone would put it on the shortlist of this year's outstanding exhibitions, but it has far more to recommend it.

For example, there is the 'œeerie precision with which [Memling] froze people in time,' said Ariella Budick in Newsday. The exquisite detail in his paintings reveals an obsession with material beauty that still dazzles. Memling was particularly renowned for the innovative way he posed his sitters in idyllic landscapes. In Man Holding a Coin of the Emperor Nero, the subject's head 'œrises above lush bushes and rolling fields.' Swans glide across a pond in the distance, while 'œa miniature horseman on a white steed pauses to take in the view' just above his right shoulder. Memling has captured the sitter's 'œmuted peach skin, the soft, stray curls of his hair against the sky, the sheen of light on his nose' with his tiny, undetectable brush strokes. It's 'œa tour de force of realism leavened with a pinch of flattery.'